Men and Boys
by Shadow of Blue
Summary: There comes a night in each young man's life when he comes to understand just exactly what his friendship means to him. Rated M. Slash/threesome. Don't like, don't read.


**Disclaimer:** Nothing of Harry Potter belongs to me. Just borrowing.

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Warning: Contains slash and threesome. Pairing - Remus/Sirius/James

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Boys and Men

Torches burned placidly in their brackets, occasional pops and crackles echoing off the grey stones of the corridor walls. In this rarely-used corridor, the torches were spaced so far apart that they did little more than create pockets of light and dark shadow that shifted, alive in the firelight. A figure-too old to be a boy, too young to be a man-slipped through shadows toward the hidden door at the corridor's end.

Distant thudding noises far above suggested that Peeves was once again doing his level best to irritate Filch, punctuated by loud, angry shouts that testified to the continuation of Peeves' incredible win record. Laughing silently in support, the young man found the doorway, tapped the door-pull with his wand, and slipped out into the night.

It only took one well-placed tap with the tree branch, exactly the right length, that he found on the ground nearby to have the Whomping Willow's branches still their furious beating. A moment later, he was inside the tunnel, moving quickly and silently toward Hogsmeade.

He knew from their empty beds and the branch near the Willow that they had been there before him. As he hurried through the tunnel, he was torn between hurt and anger. Hurt because, despite their closeness, they had not invited him; anger because if they had only told him they wanted to be alone, he would not have felt so hurt.

What on earth they wanted to do alone at this time of night was a mystery to him, but he supposed that some emergency had come up, as they often did, that needed to be talked out and dealt with.

And that only made it hurt more that he hadn't been invited.

It wasn't that he considered himself the leader of their little gang. He had never thought of himself as such. If asked, he would have thought for a moment, shrugged, and said that he was their leader by default. Sirius was too busy pulling pranks and chasing girls; Remus was too busy studying and being a prefect; Peter-well, Peter just wasn't a leader, that was all there was to it. So he, James, led by default.

Maybe, he thought, he had simply gotten so used to being asked for his opinion that he took it for granted that they should have asked him. Maybe he was jealous.

The thoughts struck him as strange even as they formed in his mind. He wasn't used to examining his own motivations. He'd always taken it for granted that he was a good person, a good friend, and a better Wizard than many. Perhaps a better Wizard than most. He was right more often than not.

Remembering the contempt in Lily's eyes that day down by the lake, when he had turned old Snivellus upside-down and hung him there for everyone to laugh at, he understood the change in himself. Before that day, contempt had always been something for James to deliver. After it, he'd begun to understand that contempt was something you'd earned.

And he'd earned it in spades.

He had no idea how to make things right with Lily. He hadn't had the chance to even try yet. Six months after his first experience at earning contempt, she still wouldn't have spit on him if he'd been on fire.

The fact that he'd deserved it so entirely only made it worse that the one girl he'd ever fallen for thought that he was lower than dirt.

He shook his head to clear it, but the hurt at being left out by his best friends was still there, eating away at his concentration. He stepped through the door at the end of the tunnel as he had so many times before, and into the Shrieking Shack. Thinking back on it later, he supposed that it was his distraction that prevented him from recognising the sounds that were floating down the staircase. Still, whatever the reason, he hadn't recognised them, and he'd gone upstairs with a silence born of habit.

He turned the corner at the top of the staircase, saw the door they had left open, and was about to walk across the landing and into the room when he caught sight of them.

Sirius, tall and pale, his long dark hair free around his shoulders, shirtless. Remus, tall and still too thin, his longish sandy hair mussed, equally shirtless. James wouldn't have said that his two best friends were kissing. Kissing was far too tame a word. Kissing implied that there was breathing going on somewhere, and as far as James could see, there was none of that happening. Sirius appeared to be trying to devour Remus whole, and Remus appeared to be trying his damnedest to return the favour.

As James watched, fascinated, from the landing, Remus' hands slid up Sirius' back past thin, still-healing scars from full moons past. His fingers, long and thin and somehow elegant, caressed each scar before moving on, up to twine in Sirius' dark tangled hair.

Sirius groaned, and James saw his friends' hands slide down to Remus' hips, pulling Remus closer until a single hair wouldn't have fit between them. Remus moaned and pressed closer still, his hands fisting in Sirius' hair, tugging urgently.

Sirius' pained laughter startled all three of them. Remus, pulling back, grinned easily at Sirius. Sirius, taller by bare inches, grinned back down at Remus, breathing heavily. James, surprised into taking a step backward, had to put a hand out to steady himself against the bannister. The creak drew all three pairs of eyes to the bannister. And to James, holding onto it.

James was horribly embarrassed. He'd just found his best friends snogging for all they were worth, half-dressed, after they'd obviously worked out a way to have time alone. He had no problem with whatever relationship Remus and Sirius had. Even if he'd been that narrow-minded, the hard-forged strength of their friendship would have prevented him being repulsed.

That didn't mean that he'd had to stand there staring like the veriest pevert.

That didn't mean that the sudden rush of intense jealousy didn't shock him to his core.

While he was still working out a way to leave gracefully and be alone with his shock, Sirius grinned at him. Knowing Sirius, James should perhaps have expected what came next. Padfoot had never been one to let the butt of one of his jokes down easily.

"I told you he'd come, Moony."

James, hearing this, felt his knees wobble. Had they planned it all this way?

Remus considered this, his hair still sticking out every which way and his eyes still fever-bright. Then he looked at James again, and grinned up at Sirius.

"No, Padfoot. He hasn't come yet."

Sirius, his arm still around Remus' waist, snickered, and Remus made a huge and obvious effort to swallow laughter so that he could continue. "But we could work on that," he said, and his warm brown studied James.

There might have been a man on earth who could have resisted the hopeful expression in those deep brown eyes. If there was, James wished him well. He'd often thought that Moony's eyes could have convinced him to do just about anything on earth, when they took on that I'm-not-pleading-but-please-please-please gleam. Of course, James thought, the corners of his mouth twitching upward, he'd never expected to be on the receiving end of that look in circumstances like these.

Still, he wasn't exactly trying hard to resist those eyes, was he? James thought.

Hell. He wasn't trying to resist them at all.

Still, as he found himself walking toward the doorway, he felt like he was watching a play in which someone else, someone who looked a great deal like himself, was playing James Potter. It might have been the discovery he'd just made-that his two best friends had likely been sneaking off for a shag now and again. It might have been the discovery that he was more than a bit jealous not to have been included in that sneaking off for a shag.

It was most likely the combined effect of their stares. Sirius' black eyes were gleaming deeply with mischief and desire, Remus' warm brown eyes alight with something James could only describe as lust. The power of those eyes, so well-known and well-loved, looking at him like that, would have been enough to overwhelm a much more indifferent man than James Potter. He walked forward, feeling as though he were inside a bubble, as though none of this was really happening.

The bubble burst when Remus reached out and slid those long thin fingers through James' perpetually untidy hair. James' eyes met Remus', and he watched as Remus' smile changed from welcoming to predatory. James, held captive by the darkening of Remus' gaze, sensed rather than saw Sirius moving closer.

"Moony, I think you're hypnotizing Prongs," Sirius observed, sounding highly amused.

"Shut up Padfoot," Remus said distantly, without heat. He slanted a grin up at Sirius, and James felt light-headed, as though he had been holding his breath all this time. Sirius' laughter, warm and so incredibly normal despite the circumstances, made James grin and realise that he had, indeed, been holding his breath all this time. He let it out with a rush, only to have to suck it back in again with a hiss when Sirius' fingers slid over his cheek before moving down to toy with the fastenings of his cloak.

"Is Prongs breathing?" Sirius asked, once he'd gotten the cloak off. "He seems to have frozen in place."

Remus laughed and poked James in the belly, gently, then affected a mock frown. "I'm not sure, Padfoot. I'll have to investigate further." He pulled James' shirt up, revealing flat, smooth belly, and grinned when Sirius took the shirt and slid it a bit roughly over James' head. James couldn't move. Didn't dare. Remus' hand, with those long, slim fingers, slid over James' belly, coming to rest just above the waistband of James' trousers.

Heat. James was fighting the urge to squirm, to press up against those fingers, to do anything at all to have them sliding lower, when Remus frowned. "I still can't tell, Padfoot," he said, looking at Sirius over James' shoulder.

Sirius, his bare chest brushing James' back as he leaned forward, rested his chin on James' shoulder. "That could be serious, Moony."

"Would you say," Remus asked, looking up at Sirius, wide-eyed, "that it's a problem requiring immediate attention?" His eyes, which had gone from dark to light when he'd grinned up at Sirius, went darker than ever.

With an enormous effort, James managed to grin down at Remus, and saw an answering sparkle in his friend's eyes. Remus transferred his too-innocent look from Sirius to James. He slid his fingers just barely beneath James' waistband and promptly ruined any illusion of innocence by grinning wickedly when James' stomach muscles clenched.

"Moony," Sirius said, sounding highly amused by the three of them, "I think it's an, er, growing problem, and it's going to get out of hand if you don't give it some immediate attention." Sirius turned his head into James' neck and began to nibble the spot where neck and shoulder came together. "If you don't," Sirius added, almost as an afterthought, "I'm damned well going to."

"Isn't it beautiful, Moony?" Sirius asked softly, as Remus slid James' trousers down.

"Damned right," Remus, by now on his knees, said admiringly.

Sirius laughed, then sunk his teeth into James' shoulder with less gentleness than before. James arched back instinctively. "Get your eyes back in your head before they get poked out, Moony. I'm not talking about that." He paused. "Though now you mention it," he said reflectively, and went back to kissing James' neck for a moment. "What was I saying?"

"Eyes...back...in...head," James managed, trying to be helpful.

Sirius' chuckle was warm, and a bit hoarse. "Right," he said, his hand sliding around to James' belly and pulling him back a bit. "Isn't it beautiful, the way he just gives over?"

Remus' fingers slid from James' knees to his thighs with teasing slowness. "Who knew Prongs would surrender so easily?" he asked, and sighed a bit wistfully before moving forward to rest his head on James' left hip. He felt Sirius' fingers slide through his hair and sighed again while he let his fingers explore.

"My...best...friends," James said between gasps. "Love...you...both." He closed his eyes and shuddered when Remus' fingers found a particularly delicate spot and teased it. "So...much."

The rest, for James, was a heated blur, as Sirius took his glasses off and put them safely away even before Remus' mouth closed around his cock. James never considered fighting it, never considered struggling to keep things in focus. They were his best friends. He trusted them with his life, and always would. He gave over gladly, more than willing to let Remus and Sirius work their own magic. Knowing, because he knew them, that he'd get his own turn to play.

Fingers and lips. Slide of flesh on flesh. Fall of hair across heated skin.

Tender. Slow. Hard. Fast.

Friendship. Passion.

Love.

Collapsed in a tangle of arms and legs and discarded clothing, they lay together on the floor, each of them dazed by the force of their coming together. James, his head resting on Sirius' flat belly, opened his eyes after he'd regained his breath. The world was still blurry. He found that he didn't care in the slightest. Closing his eyes, he rolled into his side, his hand sliding up to rest on his friend's chest as he dozed off. After a moment or two, half-asleep and missing the warmth, Remus rolled to follow James, curling along James' back, head on Sirius' chest, hand on James' hip.

SIrius looked at Remus. Remus looked at Sirius.

They grinned.

"Padfoot, have I ever told you?" Remus asked, turning his head to plant a kiss on Sirius' chest, "how fantastic you are at improvising? 'I told you he'd come, Moony.' I thought you were going to have a heart attack when he showed up."

Sirius laughed, and they looked at their sleeping friend. "Do you think he bought it?"

"I think," Remus said after some moments considering the matter, "that between the three of us, we convinced him."

"The three of us?" Sirius asked, arching an eyebrow lazily.

"You, me, and James," Remus said, that wicked grin playing across his features. "There wasn't a single one of us who didn't want it."

They grinned at each other.

Silence fell, and dust-motes danced in the weak moonlight slipping in through the haphazardly-shuttered windows.

Remus felt himself drifting off to sleep, and lost track of time.

"Moony?"

"Mmmmm?" Nearly asleep, Remus didn't even bother opening an eye.

"How soon can we wake him up and start all over again?"

Remus grinned against Sirius' chest.

Sirius' warm chuckle told Remus he'd felt the smile. Sirius' fingers stroking his shoulder told Remus that he hadn't been the only one to feel James' badly-hidden reaction to Sirius' question.

"Give him a minute or two, Padfoot. He's new at this, and he's probably exhausted. He never was as strong as you."

Before he knew what had happened, Remus was on his back on the floor.

"True," Sirius said lazily, "but he's always been one hell of a lot quicker."

Remus looked at James. James looked at Remus.

They burst into laughter even as Sirius launched himself into the fray, unwilling to be left out if there was fun to be had.

They had arrived as two and one, but left as three, stealing back through the tunnel and beneath the momentarily-stilled branches of the Whomping Willow, through the hidden door and back up to Gryffindor Tower. They ignored the Fat Lady's smirk and stole up to their dormitory, then looked at each other, a bit taken aback, when they realised that none of their beds were going to accommodate all three of them.

Their eyes, brown and hazel and black, met in the semi-darkness, and they grinned.

"Midnight," Remus whispered, barely loud enough to hear, and they slipped into their own beds, content for the moment.

Feigning sleep, Peter wondered why they hadn't invited him along. He was part of the group, too. He considered following them tomorrow, and decided that, whatever his friends were up to, it wasn't worth risking a detention. Not for what was likely just more troublemaking.

Feeling bitter and jealous, he rolled over in bed and resolved to pretend it hadn't happened, but from that night on, whenever they disappeared without him, the bitterness grew. In time, the jealousy threatened to overwhelm him.

Not long after that it succeeded, and four were divided, secretly, into three and one.

Such is the difference between men and boys.


End file.
